I'm especially impressed with the mother of a 10 year old activist post. Amazing that children can distinguish an issue and assert their changes! I hope adults can be inspired to make the same changes in the face of peer pressure.

I think resources like that are so important. Too often it is only the bystanders who don't step in who make the news headlines. If we are going to change norms so that helping is more supported, we need the positive stories!

I was reminded recently about one of the dynamics that helped shift the norm around smoking. Children were educated about the consequences of smoking and they began pressuring their parents and other adults to quit. I certainly don't want to put responsibility on children to prevent sexual violence - but just want to acknowledge that social change happens from many directions and across generations in both directions.

In the early, early days of Men Stopping Rape, Inc. - 1983 probably - some (male) group members went to picket the showing of a Porn film on The University of Wisconsin-Madison Campus.

Women allies from a feminist group were also there - and had picketed (unsuccessfully seemingly) previously.

When several of the men - in our group engaged some of the men, they did respond and a number of them then chose Not to attend the movie. It clearly showed to all of us how effective we could potentially be with peers - and how women had a similar disadvantage.

Have you ever heard of a group of children (almost like a flash mob) gathering in a public place and having a portion of them "drop" to the ground, to show how many people experience negative health impacts from smoking? I've always wanted to see that happen with sexual violence. Have a group of students build a pyramid (to show working together, and rising up from the pain through healing) in the middle of a college quad or something? Anyone ever see something like that?

Rebecca Harrington at SUNY Oneonta is doing something for sexual assault awareness week where she has students walking around campus wearing t-shirts with messages meant to provoke discussion. I'm sad to say that the exact message is now escaping me but I remember that it is a really creative project. So folks might want to look online to see if she has anything about that work posted.

I've seen a red zone campaign that was pretty amazing happen, when Gap's Project (Red) was really big, students, faculty, staff and community members purchased (red) zone tshirts to wear on a day of solidarity to raise awareness. Proceeds went to the local women's resource center. It was AMAZING to see everyone wearing their shirts!

Thank you everyone for your questions and comments. The Live xCHANGE will be ending at 3:30 PM EST. Continued discussion on bystander intervention will occur through the xCHANGE forum through April 15, 2011. At this time, the forum will not be a real time discussion but the forum will be open for questions, responses and comments. The NSVRC will respond daily to posts.

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